The other day an old friend popped up on me via instant messenger. We had lost touch in the way that you do, and hadn't talked in years. We spent an hour or so chatting and catching up—She lives out west now! She has an adorable daughter! Work is good! Etc.—and then went back to doing whatever we were doing before, which in my case was searching for bear videos and wondering how long it was going to be before I could take a drink without feeling kind of shifty about it.

Anyway, here's the thing: when I was remembering the conversation several hours later, something very strange happened.